it is indeed very hard to find pictures of Archduchess Maria Caroline Auguste Elisabeth Margaretha Dorothea. She was only called "Marie" in her family.

She was born on 06 February 1821 in Milano and died on 23 January 1844 in Vienna. She was laid to rest at the Kaisergruft, Vienna.

She became "Sternkreuzdame" on 14 September 1839.

I found this portrait of the Imperial Family (1834). Marie is the young lady who is sitting on the floor on the left. She is wearing a white dress and she is looking at the children in the middle of the picture.Her sister Adelheid is the girl in the middle of the picture, who is sitting in front of Empress Caroline Auguste, who is wearing a violet dress. Actually you can only see her face.I think the girls look older than about 12 or 13 years in this pic.

I just read in Habsburg Intim by Chris Sradtlaender the lifestory of Archduke Ernst (1824-1899), second son of Archduke Rainer (1783-1853) and Elisabeth Princess of Savoy-Carignano (1800-1856).

Archduke Ernst was known as a man of honour, although he had built up debts. But officially no one knew this of course, because his brothers Leopold, Sigismund, Rainer and Heinrich always helped him when he was in trouble. So who cares? He lived in his beautiful palais in Laibach and enjoyed his life.

Things changed when Ernst died in 1899. Suddenly there were three persons who claimed to be Ernst's children by his wife - although he wasn't married officially - and they wanted to have their inheritance.

Apparently Archduke Ernst had married a woman called Laura Skublics de Velike et Bessenyö (1826-1865) from Hungary in Laibach on 26 April 1858. As Laura had already been divorced and had two daughters, Emperor Franz Joseph had never given Ernst the permission to marry her. Laura's and Ernst's children were Laura (1859-?), Ernst Heinrich (1859-1920), Heinrich (1861-1888) and Clotilde (1863-?). They were given the surname "von Wallburg", but other sources say that Franz Joseph caused their baptismal records to be changed and to show their names as "Skublics" in 1909.

According to my book, Ernst's didn't care about his children after their mother Laura had died in 1865. Archduke Rainer, Ernst's brother, brought them to Hinterbrühl where they had to live in a palais. Sometimes they also lived in Schönkirchen, a possession of Archduke Rainer. Ernst was also there, but his children were only allowed to see him from a distance. They were treated so badly that Heinrich commited suicide in 1888.

But what do we know about the other children? Laura had to marry Dr. Sedelius Pegger who was much older than her. Her younger sister Clotilde suffered from some mental illness and lived with Laura. Ernst lived in Vienna and built up depts. He wanted to ask his father for help, but he didn't want to see him. Later Emperor Franz Joseph sent a man to him to give him some money. He was also told not to try again to see his father. Then he had different jobs, for example he worked as a waiter.

Does anybody know more about Archduke Ernst and his illegitmate children? Do you think that Ernst really married Laura?

In "Die Habsburger - ein biographisches Lexikon" (I think it was the one by Brigitte Hamann), a quite huge and detalled one, which I had borrowed several times at the German library in Frankfurt there is an article on Archduke Ernst, where the Wallburg children are mentioned. You will certainly know this book, but there the case with the Wallburgs is called "not to be proven". It is said that after the death of Ernst the three "Wallburg descendants" suddenly (the forth had already committed suicide) appeared and wanted to be accpted as legal heirs of Ernst. They tried to prove that Archduke Ernst had been married to Laura von Skublitz (called Baronin Wallburg) and had lived with her in Laibach. Because the (said) marriage was not legitimized by Franz Joseph anyway, the "heirs" did not get any heritage. But the brothers of Ernst paid education money for the (alleged) children of Ernst. It is also said in the article that there may have been something with false documents, and the whole case does not seem very secure to me, because it is clearly said that "the case could not be clarified". The Wallburgs shall have published two books, one is mentioned in the dictionary:

I think the whole case is strange. It always makes me worried that there are so many cases in history (especially with alleged children, often people, who want money) and cases that cannot been clarified. It would be interestesting to find more literature, which has an "objective" opinion towards that Walllburg case. Unfortunately until now I haven´t found more, only the article by Hamann.

It´s not proof, but it would be interesting, if you should have any pictures of the children, if they show resemblences to Ernst

One thing more: Not that I am understood wrongly, I did not want to say the case is wrong or something, because I have not enough knowledge about it and have to right to say something like that. I only wanted to say that there are evidently different opinions. Your book seems to have no doubts, if the case is true?

At Paul Theroff's website you can read: According to some sources this marriage never occurred; however, Daniel Willis has told me that he has irrefutable proof that the marriage did occur and that the children were originally named "von Wallburg" but that in 1909 the Emperor caused their baptismal records to be changed to show their names as "Skublics". He has told me that he will publish his research in the future, so I will give no further details here.

In Habsburg Intim the author Chris Stadtlaender doesn't have any doubts about this story. But here we have to be careful, because Stadtlaender loves rumours and half-truths.

Then I had a look into my Habsburg book by Alois Jahn. He mentions Ernst's "secret marriage" and "four children (Barone von Wallburg) by Archduke Ernst: Laura, Ernst, Heinrich and Clothilde". It looks like he didn't have doubts either.